Dead fish have been washing up on the beach at Marco Island – victims of a red tide bloom that’s been hovering offshore for weeks. Red tide can also be a respiratory irritant for humans. But, now researchers have discovered a possible silver lining. It involves harnessing the neurotoxin produced by red tide to repair damage to the human brain caused by strokes, other conditions or injury.
The red tide that forms off the west coast of Florida is a microscopic algae called karenia brevis. The algae are always in the water column but under certain conditions – and scientists haven’t determined why -- they reproduce rapidly.
The result is what’s called a “harmful algal bloom.” Mote Marine Laboratory Scientist Barbara Kirkpatrick is a lead researcher on the bloom’s impact on humans.
The neurotoxin produced by the bloom causes nerve cells to fire spontaneously, prompting many beachgoers to cough. Now scientists who worked with Kirkpatrick in an advisory capacity have discovered that red tide toxin also stimulates nerve cell growth in lab mice. This discovery could potentially help human suffering from strokes or brain injuries. Kirkpatrick said the research is promising.
“There’s a lot of science that needs to go forward with this, it’s a nerve cell in a petri dish sort of thing being exposed to the toxin so it’s a good step, but obviously a first step, to help stroke patients,” she said.
Study results were published this month in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.”
